East China Sea — Over the deep blue waters of the East China Sea, a Canadian military aircraft surveys the vast expanse below. The CP-140 Aurora, a maritime patrol aircraft operated by the Royal Canadian Air Force, is designed primarily to hunt enemy submarines — but this crew is on a different mission: tracking North Korean vessels engaged in illicit trade that violates United Nations sanctions.

"There are definitely some boats that look more suspicious than others," Captain Dominic Knerr, the pilot of the Aurora, tells CBS News.

Operating in international airspace over international waters, the mission — known as Operation NEON — takes the plane close to Chinese territory, often triggering a dramatic response by Beijing, which intercepts the Aurora on multiple occasions during its mi

See Full Page